The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has described as "shocking and tragic" a dossier compiled by patient campaigners detailing appalling treatment experienced by some people in NHS hospitals and care homes.

The Patients Association said the serious failings listed in its report expose how, despite countless initiatives, care of some patients is still "demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel".

The report, Patient Stories, chronicles neglectful and sometimes medically negligent behaviour by staff towards 13 mainly older patients in NHS facilities, some of whom died, and the traumatic effect it had on them and their families.

While the charity does not claim the cases in any way typify the NHS, which treats a million patients every 36 hours, it also warns that they are "far from isolated instances" of poor care.

The report highlights the case of Lauren Hughes, 15, an asthmatic who died in May this year after NHS staff gave her what her family call "completely substandard" care when she suffered a severe asthma attack.

Nurses in the minor injuries unit at Ross on Wye community hospital in Herefordshire did not know how to respond to Lauren's illness, failed to carry out basic checks on her breathing and gave her too little of the drug salbutamol to relieve her chronic breathlessness, her father Pat writes in the dossier. Despite Lauren being moved to the much larger Hereford hospital she died several days later.

"How was a healthy 15-year-old able to die of an asthma attack while in hospital? My family feel let down that the hospital staff were not appropriately trained to deal with the care", her father said.

Dr Peter Wilson, medical director of the Wye Valley NHS Trust, said it "apologised unreservedly for the shortcomings in the treatment Lauren received at the Ross on Wye minor injury unit" and that patients who arrive there with similar symptoms will now be sent to Hereford hospital's A&E unit.

Adelaide Joyce Kane, a pensioner with a broken hip, was discharged from James Cook University hospital, Middlesbrough, in June, despite her family – a daughter in France and niece in Nottingham – warning that no arrangements had been put in place to help her cope and recover once she returned home. Her daughter, Sharon Kane, said that district nurses and an A&E doctor were helpful, but hospital staff were not.

When she asked the hospital what the plans were for her mother's aftercare, she was "flabbergasted" to be told "there were none, just come and fetch her and get on with it". Lessons had been learned and discharge arrangements improved, a hospital spokesman said.

Ronald Bowman, 74, an Alzheimer's disease sufferer who developed meningitis, was found dead in a river four miles away from Panteg County hospital in Pontypool, south Wales, four days after absconding from his ward despite supposedly being checked every 15 minutes. His son, Nick Bowman, said he and his family were "incredibly hurt and distressed" that his father "was left without any of the basic care that he deserved and needed". The health trust said it had undertaken a serious incident investigation but declined to elaborate.

Medical leaders united to condemn the care involved in what Mike Farrar, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said were "deeply distressing" cases.

Privately, though, one union representing a key group of NHS staff claimed the report was unrepresentative and painted NHS care in an unfairly harsh light.

Farrar said the NHS had to do more to look after patients better. "We need a renewed focus on quality of care and the things that matter to patients. We need to ensure that the care provided to every NHS patient is of the standards of the best."

The Care Quality Commission, the NHS watchdog in England, said: "These appalling experiences should not happen." It said that care of elderly patients in particular needs to improve.

Hunt said: "The vast majority of patients get excellent care on the NHS but we will not tolerate occasions when the NHS fails its patients. That's why we are taking action to root out poor care in hospitals and care homes and make sure the quality of care is valued as highly as quality of treatment."

The health secretary added that new ways of measuring quality of care being introduced next April would help reveal cases of inadequate care. "By shining a light on those organisations which have problems, we will be able to drive up standards so that everyone gets the quality of care they should expect."

Liz Kendall, the shadow minister for care and older people, predicted that problems could get worse. She said: "These problems are partly due to the pressures the NHS faces: big increases in demand, squeezed resources, and more very sick elderly patients ending up in hospital – often because they aren't getting the up-front care and support they need in the community and from social services. This problem will only increase as local council budgets are cut and care for older people at home is reduced."